Where did the Irish Reilly family come from? What is the Irish Reilly family crest and coat of arms? When did the Reilly family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the Reilly family history?

The Reilly surname originally appeared in Gaelic as O Raghailligh, which means descendant of Raghallach.

The recording of names in Ireland during the Middle Ages was an inconsistent endeavor at best. Since the general population did not know how to read or write, they could only specify how their names should be recorded orally. Research into the name Reilly revealed spelling variations, including O'Reilly, O'Reilley, O'Reily, O'Rielly, O'Riely, O'Riley, O'Rilley, Reel and many more.

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Reilly research. Another 233 words(17 lines of text) covering the years 1172, 1598, 1669, 1630, 1695, 1689, 1640, 1703, 1689, 1646 and 1691 are included under the topic Early Reilly History in all our PDF Extended History products.

In the 19th century, thousands of Irish left their English-occupied homeland for North America. Like most new world settlers, the Irish initially settled on the eastern shores of the continent but began to move westward with the promise of owning land. The height of this Irish migration came during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. With apparently nothing to lose, Irish people left on ships bound for North America and Australia. Unfortunately a great many of these passengers lost their lives - the only thing many had left - to disease, starvation, and accidents during the long and dangerous journey. Those who did safely arrive in "the land of opportunities" were often used for the hard labor of building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. The Irish were critical to the quick development of the infrastructure of the United States and Canada. Passenger and immigration lists indicate that members of the Reilly family came to North America quite early:

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Our PDF Coat of Arms + Extended History product is the whole package all in one. With a full color Coat of Arms along with a very detailed History, full symbolism, bibliography and settlers listed by the centuries.

The Reilly Family Crest was acquired from the Houseofnames.com archives. The Reilly Family Crest was drawn according to heraldic standards based on published blazons. We generally include the oldest published family crest once associated with each surname.